Physics

Geology

Meteorology

Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite

Astronomy

Rainband

Satellite

Geostationary orbit

Geography

Data assimilation

Typhoon

Tropical cyclone

Climatology

Environmental science

Remote sensing

Monthly Weather Review

Japan’s new geostationary satellite Himawari-8, the first of a series of the third-generation geostationary meteorological satellites including GOES-16, has been operational since July 2015. Himawari-8 produces high-resolution observations with 16 frequency bands every 10 min for full disk, and every 2.5 min for local regions. This study aims to assimilate all-sky every-10-min infrared (IR) radiances from Himawari-8 with a regional numerical weather prediction model and to investigate its impact on real-world tropical cyclone (TC) analyses and forecasts for the first time. The results show that the assimilation of Himawari-8 IR radiances improves the analyzed TC structure in both inner-core and outer-rainband regions. The TC intensity forecasts are also improved due to Himawari-8 data because of the improved TC structure analysis.

Assimilating All-Sky Himawari-8 Satellite Infrared Radiances: A Case of Typhoon Soudelor (2015)